These eerie photos of deserted golf courses reveal a new normal in America

Sarah JacobsThis northern New Jersey country club and golf course has been closed for over a year.

Once a community staple in suburbs across America, the golf course is now a slowly dying breed.

According to data from Foursquare, the location intelligence company, foot traffic to golf courses has gone down in the last year. While overall visits to golf courses were up 8% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, the number of unique visits also decreased by 11% in the same time period.

This could mean that while regular golfers are continuing to enjoy the sport, the number of occasional or new players – who are trying it out for the first time – is going down. The Foursquare data was drawn from both implicit and explicit visits to golf courses, compared to the same period in 2016.

Over 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade, and data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the age of 18 to 30 have a lack of interest in playing the game. From Las Vegas, Nevada, to Mahwah, New Jersey, many courses are being replaced with housing developments.

We recently explored two closed golf courses in northern New Jersey, both of which are being turned into housing developments, to see firsthand what courses across the country look like as they become abandoned.

The Apple Ridge Country Club, located in Mahwah, New Jersey, opened in 1966.

Sarah JacobsThe front of Apple Ridge Country Club.

Clinton Carlough bought the property, which was originally an apple orchard, and built the country club. It was family-owned and operated by the Carloughs until it was sold in 2014.

However, data collected by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association show that the game of golf is losing players, and in 2015 it was at its lowest point in years.

Apple Ridge Country Club is just one example of the decline in active golfers in the state of New Jersey. Between 2006 and 2014, the number of New Jersey State Golf Association members dropped by 10%.

Sarah Jacobs

Brands that sell golf gear, such as Adidas and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have also taken note of the decline. In May, Adidas officially announced that it would sell parts of its golf division for $US425 million.

This decline in popularity is often blamed on a shift in work culture and the economy, with more people spending longer hours at the office and fewer people willing and able to spend the time and money needed to play the game.

Sarah Jacobs

Each golf course has its own unique set of problems to deal with once it officially closes.

Sarah Jacobs

While some abandoned golf courses are catching fire in drought-affected portions of California, Apple Ridge is currently being treated for arsenic and lead contamination in the soil, which resulted from pesticides that were used to treat the grass. Remedying the soil and preparing it for new developments has led to the destruction of up to 1,000 trees and shrubs, according to Derek Michalski of the local GreenUSR, a New Jersey volunteer-based environmental group. The developers have promised to replace them.